Performance Characteristics of White, Black, and Hispanic Major League Baseball Players: 1955-1984

Abstract

This study provides a general description of the social characteristics of the 1955, 1965, 1975, and 1984 rosters along with an analysis of the performance differentials of the three major racial/ethnic categories--white, black, and Hispanic-participating in major league baseball. Comparisons, contrasts, and syntheses with previously collected and analyzed data are made. Special attention is focused upon Hispanics since they have been relatively neglected in the sociology of sport literature. The findings reveal that black (particularly) and Hispanic performances are superior to whites and support the marginality hypothesis.